The Tides of Time
by GTK
Summary: Book 2 of the Tidesinger trilogy. I read that someone tried to do a horrible continuation of it, and really dislike it. More chapters will appear when I get to it.
1. Chapter 1

The Tides of Time Book Two of the Tidesinger Trilogy

And the Ancient Master Carcharodon circled before the rock, and the long low sweep of his body was as the moon upon the tides, and the waters parted before him. And yet the White Lord Tidesinger coiled in his cleft like a shining sea-snake, and he was not afraid.  
And Carcharodon the Black, who is called Megalodon by Man the Namer, and Sal-Heth by those who are gone, and Zar by the little fish, spake thus: "Thou wilt cross me one time too many, O trespasser in my domain.  
But the White Lord was not afraid, and he answered with a sugared tongue. "O great and terrible master of the waters, whose wake is red with the blood of thine enemies, I seek only knowledge from thee." "Ask, little singer, and I shall grant thy request as a last mercy"  
"Then, O Lord of a thousand deaths, whose gape is as wide as the oceans, whose tail is as huge as the moon, I would ask one thing only of thee. I wish to know the secret of the Foe"  
And Carcharodon laughed, and the sound of his laughter was death, and the waters trembled and the little fish fled for miles around. Yet the White Lord was not afraid.  
At last, thus spake Carcharodon. "Thou, little singer? Thou wilt stand before the Foe? And how shalt thy people fight, with thy weak little jaws"  
But the White Lord Tidesinger, whose body was marked with the stars of the Ancients, answered, "Do not judge me by the failings of my people, O Slayer of the Seas, for I am he who swims alone, and I have my own strength."

-from Talobrenderiel's Song

Chapter One

The sun rose slowly over a cool sea. There were few waves on this warm summer's morning--the elements were kind at this time of year. The water rippled like living glass; the sky was sapphire slashed with gold. Over the expanse of ocean, nothing moved. No fin cut the surface, no spatter of mackerel marked the presence of a shoal. It seemed that all life was at peace; even the natural order which prevailed within the ocean seemed to have taken a momentary rest.

Yet appearances were deceptive. Out of the night, winging towards the sun, came a white-winged shape, a great bird that scythed through the still morning air. Its eyes glistened golden in the sun as it came onward, flying without a wingbeat, gliding through the air as if held up by a sense of its own majesty. Its fierce eyes scanned the seas, searching for a sign...

The albatross had flown for many hours now, yet its wings still remained as unbending as ever. It swept onwards, across the Atlantic waters that changed now from blue to misty gray upon scythes of white.

The sun was well up over the horizon by the time the bird sighted what it had been looking for all this time--the dark smudge of land upon the horizon. Letting out an eerie cry of triumph, the albatross swept towards the coastline. Before, out over the open ocean, it had been utterly alone. Now, other seabirds circled slowly in the sky, their fluttering wings no match for the albatross's frozen grace--or bobbed in the waters, ducking for fish. The albatross bore its smaller cousins no ill-will, so it swept past and took their suspicious glances. Its business was not with them.

The great bird was the bearer of a message, and as it neared land its eyes became ever busier in the search for the one for whom the message was bound. It turned and slid down southwards, moving now parallel with the coast. A couple of Little Gulls followed it for several miles, letting out their high shivering calls to let it know that it was not welcome.

At last the albatross's golden eyes sighted the place it had been searching for--a coastal inlet, a shallow lagoon where the waters lapped gentle onto a smooth and sandy shore. The bird still did not turn inland--its business was not there, with the creatures of the High and Dry. Instead it veered towards a rock that stood alone, its tip just poking out of the water's surface at the entrance of the bay. Incomparably graceful, the albatross soared in and landed upon the stone, cycling its great wings back and forth for balance as it struggled for a footing. It found it, and the white bird straddled the stone, folded back its wings and waited.

It did not have to wait long. Presently its sharp eyes caught a movement in the water around its stone. The bird remained still, waiting to see whether these were indeed the ones whom it had sought. At long last, a gray back broke the surface and a smooth curved fin trailed the air for a moment. The albatross was satisfied. It let out a low honking call, drawing attention to its presence.

A sleek gray head broke the water's still surface. Two dark eyes regarded the bird with puzzlement behind the ever-friendly smile. Almost invisible under the sunlight, a group of five starlike markings glittered faintly on the dolphin's rounded forehead.

"Hi," it said, and blew.

The albatross recoiled at the smell of fish and tried to remember its not-altogether-good delphine. It was an old bird, and had learned what it knew of the tongue from the whales that were older still--it was passable in whale, but the shorter dialect of the smaller singers was a trial to it. "Hail, finned friend," it called softly. "I seek the Defender of the Future."

The dolphin's friendly expression didn't change, but a twinkle in its warm brown eyes told the albatross that it was amused. "He's me," it said. "At least, that's what people say. What do you want with me?" Other dolphins were surfacing now, glancing curiously over to where the albatross stood on its rock before blowing. The bird shifted its feet nervously as spray spotted its breast feathers.

"I have flown far in search of thee, scion of Tidesinger. I bring a message from thy starred kinsfolk in the far West. Those who sing under the eternal moon do beg audience with thee."

"You mean Afarellan?" the dolphin asked, sounding interested. "The lone-swimmers want me? Again? Can't it wait? Only--" He rolled onto his side, exposing a long and smooth underbelly. One slender fin flapped lazily in the air. The albatross noted the thin lines of scars that marred the finned one's body--a surprising number of battle markings for one so young. "We're kind of busy right now," the dolphin finished, righting himself and turning his head so that he regarded the albatross out of one mischievous dark eye. "The salmon run is on."

The albatross mentally cursed all mammals and their hedonistic lifestyles. "The Lord Afarellan did beg thy most prompt attendance, mighty star-bearer," it said, bobbing its head slightly to lend urgency to its words. "To bestow upon thee his message have I traveled all night, o'er land and wide water. I pray thee, heed the summons forthwith, for 'tis of great import."

"I guess it must be, if Afarellan sent you..." The dolphin sighed, another whiff of fishy breath to make the albatross reel back. "Okay. Did he say why he wanted me?"

"I know not what hath transpired, great warrior of the water, but I was led to understand that it is most urgent thou attend'st with due speed."

The dolphin was silent for a moment, regarding the bird with a thoughtful expression, then he dipped his snout in acknowledgment. "All right. Give me half an hour to deal with things my end, then I'll be on my way. You can tell Afarellan I'm coming."

With a billow of wind, the albatross lifted his majestic wings. "My thanks, noble star-brow. I shall return forthwith to inform his lordship of thy impending arrival."

He leaped from his rock and fought for height, trying not to hear the giggles of the dolphins below. The albatross, although as graceful as a zephyr once in the air, was clumsy in actually becoming airborne, and those long wings flailed at the air, their tips slapping the surface of the water, until he had gained enough height to slip into a long, rising glide and lock his curved wings in position. He turned in the air, glancing down into the bay where the long gray shapes slid easy through the water, then turned and swept off again towards the receding night. It would be another long flight to return home, but the albatross could fly for weeks without rest.

"Are you really leaving again, Ecco?" Star asked wistfully as he slid back under the water. The albatross had already disappeared into the sky, flying back towards the west and Lunar Bay.

Ecco paused, thinking it over. He was tempted by the idea of staying with his family, at least for a little while. It hadn't been so long since he had been separated from his friends, during an adventure that had taken him from coast to coast and even above the water. When the evil alien race named the Foe had threatened Ecco's pod and the survival of the entire world, he, plus a few friends, had risen up against the monsters, eventually meeting them on their own turf--the chill black vacuum of space.

Now, for the first time in what seemed like an age, he was able to enjoy peace and quiet with his friends. He supposed he ought to have known it wouldn't last. Ecco exhaled, feeling tired at the prospect of another adventure--and surely Afarellan wouldn't have sent out the albatross to call him if it had just been something simple. If they needed the Defender of the Future in Lunar Bay, something was up.

"I have to go, Star," he said a little reluctantly. "Afarellan wouldn't call me if it wasn't important." He started to swim, moving aimlessly forward across the perimeter of the bay. A little nervous at the proximity of the open water, Star followed him--most dolphins would not have ventured off alone on such a still morning, but Ecco feared little within Earth's waters.

"Don't go..." The female dolphin nosed him playfully in the side. "We're going to head south and catch the sardines at the Tall Rocks. Wouldn't you like that? I've never seen the Tall Rocks before, or the gate to the Inland Sea."

"Neither have I," Ecco admitted, and sighed. "Well, whatever Afarellan's got planned, it can't take all summer." He rolled over in the water and gazed at his creamy-bellied playmate with a smile that was wider than usual. "I'll meet you and the others there, Star, in a few weeks. How about that?"

She pouted. "You promised you'd stay with me..."

"Well, when the lone-swimmers call, it's usually something important. They're not the sort who'd send an albatross right across the ocean because of a minor problem..." Ecco surfaced and glanced around in search of the albatross, but the skies were clear. The bird would be winging its way back to Lunar Bay right now with the message that he was coming. "I have to go," he said to Star.

"You're always off with those lone-swimmers! They're not your family!" She slapped the water with her tail-flukes and sped off, back towards the safety of the shallow water and the pod. Ecco sighed and let off a few sonar-clicks: the echoes showed him the female dolphin skimming off through the clear blue sea. Her slight exaggeration in moving--the extra flick of the tail at the end of the upswing, the splaying of the pectoral flippers--sent a shiver of strange excitement through him, and for a moment he seriously considered ignoring the summons and chasing her back through the warm waters into their lagoon. Recently Star had been becoming more and more interesting to him. She had always been close to him--they had been childhood playmates--but suddenly she was more to him than that. He didn't quite understand the way he felt around her, or the knowing looks directed at the pair of them by Corse and Ai.

Ecco's dreams of Star were interrupted by the encroaching thought of Corse. The brusque pod leader was acting differently towards Ecco nowadays, too. Always before, Ecco had been one of the lowest ranking members of the Sapphire Bay pod; he was young and silly and lacked experience of the world. After the adventure with the Foe, he had found that Corse actually deferred to him on occasion. The older dolphin had been weakened by his ordeal with the Foe, and he knew it--it had been Ecco who had defeated the Foe, not Corse. Sooner or later, Corse would step down to make way for a new leader of the Foe.

But Ecco didn't want the job. The thought of spending the rest of his life with his family was, despite the delectability of Star's part in it, generally claustrophobic. He wanted to be out there doing something. Perhaps it was something to do with the lone-swimmer genes he was carrying--Ecco's own father Rhiellan had been a lone-swimmer, one of the mystics who chose the solitary wandering life over a close-knit family group.

His mind was made up. The sardine run would be fun, but the wanderlust would not let him lie--and the others were so provincial sometimes. He could never make Star understand why some things were so important to him, and sometimes her selfishness irritated him. Ecco glanced back into the bay, where he could hear his companions singing softly amongst themselves. Star would tell them he had left.

He turned his nose to the open sea, tasting the cooler salt of the deep waters, and started to swim west... following the albatross to the place where the sun and moon set.

The dolphin named Ecco made good time. He swam ceaselessly all day, finding his way unerringly in the water that was unmarked by any landmarks, while above him the sun swung over its arc and then sank towards the horizon once again. Ecco had made this journey before now, only then he had had an unlikely companion in tow--Karkol, the young Great White shark. A strange chance it had been to bring him and the fish together. He smiled as he thought of Karkol--they were natural enemies, had been for millions of years. Ecco's ancestor, the legendary Tidesinger, had been maimed by Karkol's own grandfather Carcharodon. Yet he and Karkol had hit it off at once... He wondered where Karkol was right now... carving a suitably bloody name for himself in his own hot southern waters, he supposed. It just wasn't the same traveling without the big fish along for the ride--grinning rakishly, laughing, looking at him with a sparkle in his flat black eye, or just swimming, powerful and patient and loyally by his side.

The sun slipped below the horizon, and still Ecco swam. He paused to rest his aching muscles for a short time, hanging still in the midnight waters with a pale moon-sliver above his head, and stopped again a little later to feed his stomach on some lost and unfortunate mackerel.

At around two in the morning, he heard a sound which would have chilled any dolphin's heart. The mellow, fluting sounds of whalesong shivered through the water--not just any whalesong but the deadly laughter of the piebald killer whales. Ecco halted, listening with his heart in his mouth. Killers were swift and fierce, and they ate dolphins when they could catch them. He was on the point of fleeing the approaching hunters when he picked out a familiar voice from the crowd and almost chattered with relief.

"Khorik!" he called out loud. "Khorik, is that you?"

"Who out here knows my name?" came the reply, half-laughing at the absurdity of such a meeting. Out of the dark waters came a glistening white shape--the white underside of Khorik showed up pale as he cruised towards Ecco, flanked by the others of his pod. Kalen and Kren, Khorik's two sons, swam on either side of the huge pod leader--they had grown from the lanky adolescents they had been into hulking giants well equal to swim alongside their mighty father. "Hello there, little sprat," the killer said equably, drawing to a halt in front of him. "Where's your grinning friend today?"

"Karkol?" Ecco laughed. "He's found some seal colony and is doing what sharks do best, I'd guess. What brings you out here so late?"

A sudden serious look crept into Khorik's sparkling brown eyes. "I hope it is not the same thing that sends you abroad, my friend," he said soberly. "We seek counsel. One of our number was taken two nights ago."

"Taken?" Ecco asked, staring. The killer whales, the largest of the children of Delphinius, were truly mighty hunters and had no natural predators in Sea. Everybody steered clear of them, even the giant humpback whales. He couldn't imagine what could successfully attack an adult killer, and said so."

Khorik inclined his head. "Ha," he said, "and there you have hit the heart of the matter. Kale was a mighty warrior indeed. He was out away from the pod, stirring up a salmon bloom, when we heard his death cry. By the time we got there, there was only blood in the water. Perhaps the Slayer swims again... but then there has been no word up from the deep-down, and when she enters foreign waters, everybody knows about it."

Ecco nodded slowly, remembering his three encounters with Greshruk the Slayer--the gigantic Great White who was the Shark Mother and leader of the saw-toothed race. Greshruk could certainly have taken a killer in the night, but Greshruk was held in such awe by the fish of the oceans that they would have heard of her presence a tenday before she arrived. The only other thing he could think of that might have done it was the Foe who had decimated Khorik's previous pod, yet the Foe too he would have known about days ago--they left behind them patches of dead water, stripped bare of every living thing.

Khorik rose and blew, then returned to his smaller companion. "We were going south," the killer said, "to find the Slayer. If she did not do it, she might perhaps know what could have."

Ecco's eyes widened slightly--he admired the killers' bravery in seeking out Greshruk, but at the same time he was concerned that Khorik and his pod could be swimming to their death. Even a pack of killers would have their work cut out fighting the Slayer. "Be careful," he said at last, understanding that whatever he could say would have little effect on the killers. They wanted to find out what had threatened their security so drastically, and they were fighters--they would not be intimidated.

Khorik dipped his head in agreement. "You too, little singer," the killer told him. "Now tell me, what brings you here again? Tired of you peaceful bay in the balmy eastern seas?"

Ecco laughed. "Nothing so pleasant. I got a message from Afarellan, asking me to come to Lunar Bay. I don't have any idea what it's about yet--the albatross didn't tell me anything."

"Ha," Khorik said, baring his peg-like teeth in a grin. "I know how that goes. Those birds talk like humpbacks, all thees and thous. Pfah!"" Becoming momentarily serious once again, he turned his head and looked Ecco up and down with one gleaming brown orb. "I hope our two errands are not connected in some way, my small friend. Ever we seem to meet in danger."

"Let me know how you get on," Ecco told him. "I'll meet up with the rest of my pod at the Tall Rocks sardine run later this year."

"We'll find you," Khorik promised. "Or if we don't, we'll give your pod a message--if we can get close enough! He and his two sons laughed uproariously; as dolphins were one of the many things on the killer whale menu, Ecco's family were likely to keep their distance from Khorik and his unruly brood.

The killers soon departed, and Ecco resumed his lonely journey westwards. The sun rose onto another day and then set again without his even seeing another living thing. But, as the sweeter taste of land began to filter into the water, he started to feel as if he were accompanied in some way. He glanced left and right, catching an occasional startling glimpse of a shadow at his side, but whenever he looked there was nothing there, and echolocation yielded no further results. "Vapors," he muttered to himself, wryly. "I'm too old to be scared by vapors." Yet Khorik's tale unnerved him still.

He arrived in coastal waters on the morning of his third day's traveling, having made good time and kept up a constant pace. It was another gift of his lone-swimmer heritage, this ability to cross vast distances in a single tireless bound. Ecco had crossed the Atlantic in seventy-two hours. Yet, even so, he found himself not unexpected. As he crossed the coral reefs, two white-bodied dolphins swam out to greet him--white dolphins with sooty black extremities and bodies that glistened with faint sparks.

"Welcome back, my friend," one of the dolphins said in a soft female voice, and he laughed, recognizing Naylle. One of the few lone-swimmers he knew personally, Naylle had been present at the Moonsong during his first great adventure. She bowed her head in deference, then looked up and smiled at him. "It is good to see you again, Ecco. Thank you for coming as promptly as you did."

"I couldn't do otherwise," he said, slightly surprised. "So what's the big hurry? Why do you need me here?"

Naylle and her companion began to swim through the reefs. She cast a glance back at him, inviting him to follow her; he fell into formation with the two lone-swimmers. They headed off between towers of shimmering coral. "Afarellan will tell you about it later," Naylle said, glancing back at him.

"It's nothing serious, is it?" He hesitated. "I was going to spend the summer with my family, that's all..."

She laughed. "I promise you, Ecco, you will have plenty of time to swim with your pod. We will not take up too much of your time. The situation is, a couple of lone-swimmers were attacked by a shark in a cave up north. We want to know why--by ancient agreement, the lone-swimmers are exempt from the First Law while within their sacred places. You know more about the hungry ones than any other singer alive. Afarellan hopes that you will be able to speak with them and find out why they attacked our podmembers.

"I can try," Ecco said doubtfully. "I think you overrate my influence with sharks, though, to be honest."

Naylle sent him a laughing look. "This from one who survived three meetings with the Slayer?"

"She did promise she'd kill me next time."

"We will see," the white dolphin said. The rock wall, the barrier which kept the lone-swimmers' bay separate from the rest of Sea, loomed up before them. Without hesitation Naylle and her companion passed through, but Ecco had to steel himself before moving onwards--though by now his head knew that the wall was not real, his heart told him insistently that he could not pass through solid objects. At last, however, he opened his eyes and found himself once more under a starry sky--though it had been bright midday when he had met Naylle on the coral reef. Lunar Bay was well named: its sky endlessly showed that one bright night, thousands of years ago, when Tidesinger had sung down the moon to fight off the Foe. 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

The Lunar Bay dolphins greeted him pleasantly in the manner of their kind--although unlike other dolphins, the lone-swimmers were not given to conversation, they did go out of their way to pay their respects to Ecco. He responded a little uneasily to their overtures, still unused to being so much the center of attention or so much the hero.

"They remember you," Naylle said. "You and the gray one will remain in our hearts for many years to come, I imagine. It was thanks to you that our Earth was saved from the Foe."

"We didn't do it alone," Ecco reminded her. "Practically all the singers in the sea came together to do the Moonsong--and we can't forget the sharks."

"Yes... fighting off the Foe while we sang the Moonsong. I remember clearly." Naylle sighed. "It is strange that the sharks should cause trouble now. We have gotten on so well in past times..."

They soared over a glittering white sandy floor and into deeper water. The citadel of the lone-swimmers spiraled up from the darkness, its marble tip breaking the surface of the still water to enter the crystalline night air. Even though he had seen it before, Ecco had to stifle a yip of awe when he saw the ancient place. Under the endless moonlight, its white stone gained an aura of power and age unlike anything else in the sea--except perhaps for the feeling one got in Atlantis, although that great city was nothing more than a ruin.

He frowned, narrowing his eyes as they swam through the lone-swimmer bay. Something was different here. The last time he had come to this place, he had Karkol had had the Foe on their tails and the whole of Sea had been abuzz with fear--but the moment they had entered Lunar Bay, a great wave of calm had washed over them. Ecco glanced around, puzzled. That calm was not here today. Though the citadel looked the same as ever, there was tension in the atmosphere. The few lone-swimmers who were about moved swiftly and nervously, pausing only a short time to offer him their greetings.

"These shark attacks have really unnerved you, haven't they?" he asked Naylle. "Everyone looks so worried."

She glanced back at him. "You are observant, my friend. Yes, we are worried. There is an agreement between the hungry ones and the lone-swimmers which dates back to the days of Tidesinger himself. They do not hunt us in our sacred places, and we do not use our Song to drive them from the water. But these attacks..." Naylle rose and blew suddenly, more to relieve tension than to take in needed air. "We are afraid," she admitted, returning to his side. "If the sharks ever enter Lunar Bay, there may be war."

"War?" Ecco asked. The word, and the concept, were unfamiliar to him.

She nodded gravely. "If pushed, the lone-swimmers will rise up against the sharks and their kind--and we would be joined by all the children of Delphinius, for none of them have any love for the hungry ones. For their part, the sharks have the Slayer." Naylle looked at him with an unhappy expression in her deep dark eyes. "Ecco, if it comes to that, the waters will run awash with blood, and not because of any Foe."

He shuddered at the very thought. "But they don't know the way, do they?"

Naylle became very grave. "One of them does," she said softly, gazing at him.

Ecco stared at her for a moment, and then felt his heart lurch as he understood the implications behind her statement. "You're not suggesting Karkol had any part in this, are you?" he asked angrily.

"He knows the way into Lunar Bay," Naylle said softly. "He can recognize our illusions for what they are. I do not hold it an impossibility."

"It is an impossibility," Ecco snapped. "I know Karkol! He wouldn't attack dolphins on purpose, and he certainly wouldn't go for a lone-swimmer!"

"Nevertheless, I think we must consider it," she told him. Ecco subsided, but he stared angrily at Naylle's tail as she dived and headed for the entrance to the citadel.

Afarellan, leader of the lone-swimmers, was waiting for them in the Chamber of Histories where he and Ecco had first met. Ecco paused in the entrance, suddenly afflicted with all kinds of memories. The first time he had been here, he had been with Karkol... He bowed his head in thought, remembering the big fish and wondering where he had got to.

After a moment, he glanced up at the Lunar Bay pod leader, and was shocked. Afarellan had changed greatly during the months they had spent apart--the older dolphin had lost a lot of weight and seemed haggard in the soft light of the crystalline chamber. His wise old eyes were sunken slightly. But the spark in them was as bright as ever. Moving slightly stiffly, Afarellan swam forward to greet him.

"Welcome back, my young friend," he said softly. "Thank you for returning so swiftly."

"That's okay," Ecco answered. "So, what's up? Naylle said something about a shark attack..." He glanced back, but the female dolphin had left the room in her customary silent manner, and he was alone with the pod leader.

"Yes," Afarellan said in a weary voice. "It is most puzzling. There is a cavern north of here which used in legend to be the home of Tidesinger. Two of our warriors remain there at any one time, honoring the memory of our ancestor. The cavern is sacred to us, and none but a lone-swimmer may enter--but a shark somehow found its way through the passages nevertheless and attacked the two who were there."

"Do you know what sort of shark it was?" Ecco asked. Great Whites he tended to get on well with--well, of the two he had met, he had befriended one and had at least remained uneaten by the other, which was more than many other dolphins could say. He was familiar with many of the blues and reef whitetips that hung around Sapphire Bay and even knew some of them by name. However, the only other shark of a size to challenge two lone-swimmers at once was a tiger, and Ecco had never spoken to one of those striped monsters. The tiger shark was well known as the "garbage can of the sea", happy to eat anything that found its way to its mouth.

Afarellan just shook his head. "The two who were injured have not been able to tell us. One of them has not yet regained consciousness, and the other claims he did not catch a close sight of the animal."

"Can I talk to him?" Ecco asked.

"Of course. Follow me." The old dolphin turned and slowly made his way out of the Chamber of Histories. Ecco followed, struggling slightly to adjust to Afarellan's stately pace, and noticing the arthritic stiffness of the old one's movements. Lone-swimmers were different to other dolphins, but if Afarellan had been one of Ecco's own he would have judged him to be approaching seventy--a shocking age for a dolphin.

Afarellan led him downward through a series of glittering corridors. Ecco stuck close by the old one, chafing inwardly at their slow pace. Finally, however, they turned into a side room and entered a great chamber filled with Atlantean machinery--he recognized the style from past experience. Two dolphins tended a machine in which was held a third, unconscious lone-swimmer--deep half-healed lacerations marred his white body. A cup over the blow hole supplied the crippled dolphin with air; the machine was casting a healing light over the wounds. Ecco stopped, appalled at the severity of the injuries the lone-swimmer had attained.

"This wasn't just any shark," he said, staring at the maimed swimmer. "I've never seen anything like this... well, once," he added to himself, remembering a long-ago event which had sparked off his first quest. A common dolphin, Orcus, had struggled into Sapphire Bay with a similarly awful wound. Ecco thought of Foe--the viciousness with which the lone-swimmer had been attacked suggested those alien monsters to him. A shark would have bitten once and then backed off to wait for its prey to die. Foe attacked with fury, ripping their prey into pieces. But then again, this bite pattern was nothing like that of the Foe."

"It came from below and to one side." The speaker was another lone-swimmer. Ecco looked him up and down, seeing that he too was injured, though not half as badly. A newly closed-over tear marked his long body from chest to tail-fluke, and his left eye had been closed for good by a similar slash across the face. "We never saw it coming, nor heard it either," the lone-swimmer said, turning awkwardly to look at Ecco with his good eye. "You are the Defender?"

"I am," Ecco agreed. "I guess. Though I don't know what you expect me to do..." He stared at the unconscious dolphin again, at the machines that were keeping him alive. "Do you think he would have seen it any better?" he asked the other swimmer.

The blinded one shook his head. "It is unlikely," he said. "I saw my friend attacked, and the only thing I saw of the enemy was a shadowy shape. It moved so fast..." He trembled. "It went in and out, slashing at us then fleeing back into the darkness only to return from a different direction in another heartbeat. We could not fight it."

Ecco frowned. That sort of battle technique sounded more like that of a dolphin than a shark. He turned to Afarellan, hesitantly. "Could an air-breather have done this?"

"It is out of the question," the old one said instantly. "No lone-swimmer would ever do such a thing."

"I can't see a shark doing this," Ecco muttered, "of any species."

"Will you help us?" Afarellan asked gently. "You are best suited to the task--you can speak with the creature, perhaps, and find out why it attacked us." Ecco wavered, and the old one dipped his head. "We need your help, Ecco," Afarellan murmured, his voice barely above a whisper.

Ecco struggled with himself, but was unable to avoid dipping his own head in agreement. "Fine," he said. "I'll do it. Take me to this cave of yours and let's go look for some clues about the identity of your monster."

"And somehow," he murmured, as Afarellan and the injured swimmer led the way up and out of the citadel, "I get the feeling you two aren't telling me everything."

The injured swimmer's name was Belillan and he was a distant cousin of Naylle, Ecco found out as they headed north together. Belillan wasn't over-eager on talking, but he would at least answer when asked a question. Ecco swam on his blind side to provide him with protection there in the event of an attack. It was strange, having to worry about sharks in lone-swimmer waters.

"Do sharks come near your cave often?" he asked.

Belillan shook his head. "Only the little horn sharks, and they are vegetarians. In any case, they would not be big or fast enough to attack one of us. I think it was a great white that came into our cave."

"Oh, you do?" Ecco asked carefully, alarm bells ringing in his head. If possible, he wanted to stave off the possibility of a lone-swimmer confrontation with Greshruk, if only because Karkol and himself might get drawn into the fight on opposite sides. "What makes you think that?"

"The creature was strong enough to be a white shark, and it moved as if it were warm-blooded, not a sluggish fish. It was like lightning." Belillan paused. "And white sharks around here are not unknown. We saw one a few mornings ago, but thought nothing of it."

Ecco frowned. That did seem suspicious. It was unlikely that more than one large predator would be found in the same waters, and certainly there were rogue whites. If a white shark was around here somewhere, it would probably be the culprit. And yet... sharks simply did not attack in that manner. And although he knew that great whites were fast when they wanted to be--he had spent too much time around Karkol to have any illusions on that account--they didn't have agility at speed. A white would charge like a freight train. It simply couldn't turn around during its attack, darting in and out in the way Belillan described.

"I don't know," he admitted at last. "But my heart's telling me that no white shark was responsible for this."

Belillan favored him with a long look out of his good eye. "The others call you shark-friend, and now I know why. Your loyalty is commendable, but you cannot let your... acquaintance... with one of the hungry ones blind you to the nature of their race." The white dolphin glanced away again and then slowed his pace. Rock walls loomed up in front of them. At a particular place, two white dolphins waited as if guarding the wall. They stared at Ecco with thinly disguised suspicion, but made way for him when they saw that he was accompanied by one of their own. "Here," Belillan said softly. "This is the place. The guards were set here after the attack. They mark either side of the entrance."

"Another illusion?" Ecco asked. In answer the lone-swimmer moved forward and vanished into the rock face. He suppressed a fizz of laughter and swam up to it himself. No matter how many times he did do this, he would never get used to the idea of swimming through a solid object... Ecco steeled himself, squeezed his eyes closed and passed through the barrier, feeling a nervous pricking on his skin as he did so.

The other side was a great tunnel, leading inward through the stone to darkness--but it was lit, poorly, by glowing crystal globes that had been set into niches in the walls. More Atlantean technology. Belillan waited only for Ecco to orient himself before moving smoothly off through the darkness. "Stay close to me," the lone-swimmer called softly, "there are traps here for the unwary. Venture too far from the path I have set and you will die."

Ecco exhaled in surprise and hurried to catch up with the lone-swimmer as Belillan inscribed a complex path through the emptiness of the cavern. Something brushed along his back--almost--he felt the closeness of the thing, but it did not quite touch him. Turning carefully he saw something that was almost invisible in the water--a rope of some intangible substance, like a jellyfish's tentacle.

"Are they poisonous?" he asked Belillan.

"Oh, you can see the strings?" The lone-swimmer glanced back at him with a spark of cool amusement in his eyes. "No, they are not dangerous in themselves. But, if one is broken, it will drop half the ceiling down onto the luckless victim." Now that Ecco was looking, he saw swathes of the stuff were stretched right across the cavern, invisible to echolocation; they gleamed faintly with reflected light. It seemed inconceivable that any creature could get past the barrier without the help of a lone-swimmer... again, Ecco frowned. Perhaps the mysterious monster had followed Belillan and his companion in."

They turned a corner and Belillan picked up speed, following an upslope as he passed through a natural maze--Ecco fought to stay with him as they took tunnel after tunnel. His mind was reeling with trying to remember the way through, but he knew he was fighting a losing battle. This was another conundrum--even if the creature could have gotten through the strings of death, how would it find its way through the maze?

At last Belillan stopped and turned to him. "We are in through the Caverns of Secrets," the white dolphin said. "This is the place where we were attacked." Ecco slowed and stopped, realizing that the passage came to an end here. There was a strange rushing, bubbling noise coming from somewhere he couldn't at first identify. A bright light stung his eyes for a moment, and when he had adjusted he saw that it came from a kind of altar. A glittering marble pedestal, lit up from within, stood in the center of the wide cavern.

"Did the creature steal something from here?" he asked, staring at the pedestal. It looked as if something should have been there.

But Belillan shook his head. "There was nothing here to steal. This is the shrine of Tidesinger, nothing more. It would have housed his bones, but... nobody knows his final place of rest."

Ecco swam forward, intending to examine the pedestal more closely, but suddenly Belillan moved to block the way. "That is not necessary," the lone-swimmer said softly. "There is nothing here to see."

"There might be a clue of some sort--"

"There is nothing."

Ecco was suddenly very curious about this strange and ancient place, but Belillan was obviously not going to back down, and, even though the lone-swimmer was weak and injured he had no wish to tackle him. Belillan would be a master of the Power of Song and, in all likelihood, had other arcane skills which Ecco did not.

"Okay," he sighed. "So somehow this creature gets past the traps--which, by the way, I don't think a shark could. It attacks you. Then what? Is there another way out of here?"

"Only one," Belillan answered. "See--there."

He glanced up and saw what was making the rushing noise and the turbulence in the water. The cavern was an underground lake, fed by a waterfall from somewhere far up. A hole in the wall covered by a delicately worked metal grating provided the only way for the water to exit.

"That is the Ancient Way," Belillan explained. "The current carries one through the stone and out into the open water, but it is too small for all but the most slender of enemies to pass, and the gate is closed until two lone-swimmers work together to open it. These tunnels were designed for defense."

"You really think of everything," Ecco muttered, gazing at the tiny opening. "Well, if the creature is as big as it had to have been to best two lone-swimmers, there's no way it could have gotten out this way. That means it either went back through the traps, in which case it would have had to pass our guards, or..."

He felt his heart lurch nervously.

"It's still in here somewhere," he said nervously. 


End file.
